City of Schwerin in Northern Germany to drill for geothermal heating project

The local utility of the city of Schwerin in Northern Germany is planning a geothermal district heating project, having now signed a drilling contract with German Daldrup & Söhne AG.

In a release today, Daldrup & Söhne AG, a drilling technology and geothermal specialist company, announces having received an order for a geothermal drilling from Energieversorgung Schwerin GmbH & Co. Erzeugung KG (EVSE), a subsidiary of municipal energy provider Stadtwerke Schwerin GmbH (SWS), in northeastern Germany. The order has a value in the lower single million digit range. Operations will start the end of May 2018 in Schwerin-Lankow.

The drilling is projected to go into a depth of 1,250 metres. The project will be supported by the German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in line with the climate protection subsidy directive and the climate protection loan scheme. Stadtwerke Schwerin views geothermal energy as an important part of the sustainable and climate-friendly energy production needed to make Schwerin, the state capital of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, CO2-neutral by 2050. Around 15% of Schwerin’s district heating will be provided from geothermal energy in the future.

“We are excited about supporting Stadtwerke Schwerin in reaching their goal of supplying CO2-neutral energy”, says Daldrup & Söhne CEO Josef Daldrup. “This means Stadtwerke Schwerin will be less affected by the volatility of gas and coal prices while using local resources to provide base load power to local residents.”

Daldrup & Söhne AG sees great potential for energy providers as well as commercial and industrial customers to fairly quickly generate relatively easily accessible geothermal from the North German basin. Daldrup & Söhne is already participating in several tenders in the region and is in negotiations with additional municipal energy providers and investors.

The water-bearing rock layers beneath the ground have a temperature of over 60 Celsius – for direct heat production – respectively of over 100 Celsius to ensure base load power generation. The North German basin contains parts of the states of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Brandenburg, Berlin, Lower Saxony, Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein.